Nationalizing a Borderland

War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920

Alexander Victor Prusin

Publication Year: 2005

Nationalizing a Borderland enriches understanding of ethnic conflict by examining the factors in the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia between 1914 and 1920 that led to the rise of xenophobic nationalism and to the ethnocide of World War II. From Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Austrian archival sources, Prusin argues that while the violence inflicted upon Jews during that period may at first seem irrational and indiscriminate, a closer examination reveals that it was generated by traditional negative views of Jews and by the security concerns of the Russian and Polish militaries in the front zone. This violence, Prusin contends, served as a means of reshaping the socio-economic and political space of the province by diminishing Jewish cultural and economic influence.

Cover

Half Title, Series Info, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

Preface

East Galicia ranks among the regions most devastated by World War 1. From
the summer of 1914 to the fall of 19IJ, this densely populated Austrian province
became a fluid battlefield as Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies rolled
back and forth, leaving behind a trail of blackened ruins. In early September of
1914, after a series of frontier engagements, ...

Map of East Galicia

Introduction

By the turn of the twentieth century, the majority of Galician Jews lived in
close-knit communities and maintained a traditional socioeconomic and religious
way of life under the relatively tolerant Habsburg rule. Their cultural,
religious, and linguistic heritage made them a visible and distinct minority
among their Polish and Ukrainian conationals. ...

Part I. Russian Rule in Galicia

1. Russia Goes to War

"If we count the rewards we can expect from this war-there is no doubt it is
mere madness. What should we expect to gain? Territorial accretion? But
aren't the lands of His Imperial Majesty large enough? ... Galicia? But it is
full of Jews!" So on September ra, 1914, Count Sergei Witte, the prominent
Russian statesman, ...

2. "Leveling" Jews: Ethnic Policies in Occupied Galicia

In early August 1914, the Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies clashed in
several bloody frontier engagements, and on August 18, thirty-five Russian
divisions under the command of Lieutenant General Alexei Brusilov penetrated
deep into enemy territory. On September 2, hard-pressed by the superior
Russian forces, ...

3. Russia's Internal Front: Expulsions and Deportations

During the first six months of the war, the Russian military's efforts to bring
Galicia into line with the rest of the empire demonstrated the gap between
grand imperial visions and the realities of occupation. Failure to achieve the
envisioned plans was partially a result of more moderate policies of the Russian
government, ...

Part II. The Polish-Jewish Conflict

4. Polish-Jewish Relations during World War I

When news of hostilities reached Galicia in August 1914, the reaction ofJews
was strikingly similar to that of their coreligionists elsewhere in Europe.
Although they feared and resented the war, Jews joined with Poles and Ukrainians
in patriotic demonstrations and confirmed their loyalty to the Austro-Hungarian
crown in public meetings. ...

5. The Lwów Pogrom, November 22–24, 1918

At the end of World War I a horrified Jew saw Habsburg emblems being
ripped off building walls in Prague and desperately cried out: "Who will shield
us now?"l Indeed, as the Austro-Hungarian and German empires crumbled,
state institutions that had traditionally protected Jews from the pent-up fury
of local nationalisms ceased to exist. ...

6. The Polish Frontier Wars, 1919–1920

By the beginning of 1919 Poland had faced tremendous challenges. As a main
battlefield of World War I, the country had been devastated by the years of
fighting, the unbridled robberies of its natural resources and requisitions of
foodstuffs by the belligerent armies, and the forcible relocation of its population.
...

Conclusion

Such a definition of anti-Semitism certainly elucidates the roots of antiJewish
violence in wartime East Galicia. At the same time, however, it does
not explain why the violence did not remain a constant, but rather erupted in
certain circumstances and remained dormant in the others. ...

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